


crown of thorns

by AllOfThisMatter



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Alcohol, Difficult Decisions, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3444752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllOfThisMatter/pseuds/AllOfThisMatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jupiter Jones has everything befitting a queen.<br/>Especially difficult decisions.<br/>To preserve her principles or to preserve a life?<br/>Set a few years after her ascension.</p>
            </blockquote>





	crown of thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Jupiter Ascending or any of its characters.

He found her in her study, accompanied only by a bottle of vodka. She was lying on her side on the couch, one hand trailing the floor and the other wrapped around her drink. Her eyes were unfocused, but aimed at the dying flames in the hearth she insisted on having in her office. Much of her palace was like this: functional and in tune with the typical style of the wealthy’s alcazars, but dotted with strange little evidences of Jupiter’s heritage as a resident of Earth. 

Caine stood in the entry, just staring at her for a while. He hated seeing her like this, numbed and broken. He seldom felt able to help her, and that was near-unbearable, because that was his job. To help her and protect her, to love her and worship her and comfort her. It was hard to know how to find her when she was lost like this. But that was just how she dealt with grief. She receded inside herself, because that was how she’d always had to deal with pain.

After a few minutes, she noticed his presence. Jupiter lifted her head and looked at him. She wasn’t really crying, but tears streamed unchecked from her tired eyes and her face was pale and drawn, lacking its usual expressiveness and vibrancy. Her lips formed half of his name and then trailed off, like she couldn’t quite remember how to speak.

Finally he entered the room and moved to the couch. She shifted so that he could sit and laid her head in his lap. This was something of a relief; normally, she liked it when he played with her hair, but he hadn’t been sure if she would even want to be touched. Almost reflexively, his fingers began sifting through her shining black tresses. Caine felt her soften and curl closer against him, felt her sigh and reach a hand to rest on his knee.

“Seven months,” she said so quietly he almost missed it. “Seven months until RegenR8 is out of testing, safe for use, finished licensing and ready for synthesis. Ready for production. But she doesn’t have seven months.”

That had been her project for the past 9 years since her ascension. Alternatives to human-based Regenex. And she’d found it. Negotiations with Kalique and Titus and the promise of use of the new formula had led to Abrasax Industries’ total halt of human harvesting for the past year. They were selling the remaining Regenex at nearly three times its original prices in anticipation of the new product.

RegenR8 would be less expensive to produce, with a much lower production time. It would hold cells in stasis at the user’s optimal code for years before they began aging again. One cylinder of RegenR8 would have the same potency of a batch of 50 Abrasax Premiums.

It was an amazing improvement, to be sure. No more humans had to die to produce it. More people could afford it. But right now, none of that meant anything to Jupiter. 

Five months ago, at family dinner, Caine detected something extremely off in Aleksa’s scent, and Jupiter dragged her to the doctor as soon as possible.

_"Cancer.” “Tumors.” “Not a good chance.” “We can try chemo.”_

Every week for four and a half months, she took her mother to the chemo clinic. For nothing. This morning they told her that Aleksa had all of two, maybe three months left. There was nothing more to be done. That they should make her comfortable. 

“I promised myself that I would never, ever use Regenex and neither would my family. That I would find the alternative. That maybe one day, I would tell them, offer it to them, offer them eternity, but only if no humans had died to give it to them. And now—“ her fingers touched on a cylinder of Abrasax Dragonfly on the floor that Caine hadn’t noticed before. “And now—“

She sat up and threw her arms around him, finally letting him in. Her small frame shook with sobs and he pressed her closer, desperate to soothe, to show her she wasn’t alone.

“I swore we wouldn’t ever touch this evil stuff. But I’m not ready to let her go. And I could save her. It would be so easy. Just a little in her coffee. She’d never know. The doctors would call it a miracle. She’d be okay. She took care of me. And now I have the chance to do the same and I’m hesitating? How can it even be a question?”

She was so strong, his queen. So strong and determined and caring. She had everything: money, power, influence, palaces, companies, planets. None of that mattered to her compared to her family. He hated that she had to make this choice, but he knew her. She would choose. And she would be stronger for it, no matter what. He knew that he had nothing to say about this, that there was nothing he could say that would make it better, make the choice easier. So he just held her, hoping that she would remember that she always had him. All of him. His love, his devotion, his respect. Body, mind, and soul, he was hers, forever.

“Caine,” she murmured, voice clouded with tears and emotions and tiredness.

He hooked an arm under her legs and stood, moving towards the door. 

“Sleep on it, Your Majesty. You’ll know in the morning. I’m sure you will.”

She nodded, closed her eyes and turned into his chest, the rocking of his gait and the alcohol in her blood already pulling her down. He brought her to their bedroom and laid her down, pulled off her shoes and tugged her blankets over her. The absence of his arms woke her long enough to open her eyes and look at him.

“Stay.”

“Always.”


End file.
